National Aeronautics &
Space Administration

Kennedy Space Centre Railroad

Photo: NASA / Kim Shiflett

The Kennedy Space Center Railroad is
government owned and since the 1980s had been operated by the NASA
Railroad, a subsidiary of NASA. It runs from the Florida East Coast Railway
main line at Cape Canaveral Junction into the Space Center. The
photograph was taken in March, 2009, when the railway received the
solid rocket booster (SRB) segments for the Ares I-X launcher, while the video was
filmed for the most part in 2010, during one of the final deliveries
of SRB segments for the Space Shuttle program.

With the end of Space Shuttle flights and
the cancellation of the Ares program, the railway has seen little
traffic in recent years. NASA relinquished its responsibility for
operating the railway. The locomotives were sold, the last two leaving
the Space Center in 2015. The remaining small amount of traffic
into the Center is handled by Florida East Coast. A proposal exists
for a new freight railway serving Port Canaveral, which would in
part use the existing route through the Space Center.

The remainder of this article, together with
the photographs below, were taken from the June 8, 2001 issue of the
Kennedy Space Center magazine, Spaceport News.

Kennedy Space Center’s Locomotive No. 3 takes a full set of
solid rocket booster segments across the Jay Jay Bridge over the Indian
River.

Inside KSC Railroad

The Kennedy Space Center Railroad is a vital part of the
transportation system at KSC.

The railroad is used to transport solid rocket booster (SRB)
segments, ground support equipment and construction materials to
locations on Center.

It is also used to make rail shipments, including rocket fuel
and oxidizer, to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS).

The railroad, based at the KSC Railroad Equipment Shop and
interchange area on Contractor Road, includes 45 miles of track,
several interchanges, three 1,500-horsepower locomotives and about
60 freight cars. The track connects with the Florida East Coast
Railroad (FEC) several miles north of Titusville.

Although the railroad traverses a large area, many KSC team
members are not aware that the Center has a railroad, said Will
Eriksen, lead for railroad operations.

“Our conductors have to be extremely careful at railroad
crossings because many employees here don’t think to look and
listen for warnings that a locomotive is coming down the tracks,”
Eriksen said. “We look out for employees, but it would be safer if
drivers would pay a little more attention at the crossings.”

Good advice, considering that each loaded SRB segment and its
freight car weigh 500,000 pounds.

Eriksen supervises the team of six railroad employees, including
conductors, engineers and mechanics, who work for CMT, a
subcontractor on the Joint Base Operations and Support Contract.

Railroad team members maintain and repair KSC’s railroad equipment
and are sometimes called upon to assist in repairing CCAFS equipment.

Fighting corrosion caused by the Cape’s salt-laden winds is one of
the team’s biggest maintenance challenges, Eriksen said.

Two members of the group, the engineer-conductors, drive the
locomotives.

Each of their trips to pick up or deliver freight can take up to
several hours. For example, transporting spent and cleaned SRB
segments from the interchange on Contractor Road to the FEC drop-off
point, called the Jay Jay Railyard, takes about three and a half
hours. That trip through the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge parallels
State Road 3 and ends with a dramatic crossing of the Jay Jay
Bridge and the Indian River.

After the delivery, an FEC locomotive picks up the SRB segments
and transports them to the next railroad along the route to the
manufacturer in Utah.

“When you think about it, KSC features every kind of
transportation, rail, trucks, aircraft and the Shuttle,”
Eriksen said. “We’re proud to be a part of that.”